Cowboys great diagnosed with degenerative condition linked to dementia

SAN ANTONIO – Dallas Cowboys great Tony Dorsett has been diagnosed with signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative condition that scientists have linked to depression and dementia, according to reports.

Dorsett first publicly revealed the diagnosis in an interview with ESPN’s “Outside the Lines.”

Dorsett later confirmed the diagnosis in an interview Wednesday with the Dallas Morning News.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” Dorsett, 59, told the newspaper. “Not a good thing. I’m looking at ESPN, and it (the news) is rolling across the ticker tape.”

The Pro Football Hall of Fame running back said that he and two other former NFL players were diagnosed with CTE following three months of brain scans and other tests at UCLA.

“Outside the Lines” reported that the other players were Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman Joe DeLamielleure and former All-Pro defensive lineman Leonard Marshall.

Dorsett, who rushed for 12,739 yards during 12 NFL seasons and helped the Cowboys win the Super Bowl after the 1977 season, was among more than 4,500 former players who were plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the NFL. The league reached a $765 million settlement last month.

“It’s enlightening to know what I have, what I’m dealing with,” Dorsett told the Dallas Morning News. “Now it’s time to find out, how can we can come back from it? I actually was told [by researchers] that it can be reversed. I was like, ‘What?’ They said, ‘Yeah, it can be reversed, slowed down, stopped.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, OK, so we need to get on out of here and get on that program immediately.”